


Just One Scratch

by MidnightForest037



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Half-Dragon Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Hurt Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Identity Reveal, Secret Identity, Stoick the Vast Lives, Transformation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:28:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26008786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightForest037/pseuds/MidnightForest037
Summary: Hiccup and Toothless were playing around one day after flying when Toothless accidentally scratched Hiccup. He brushed it off, having been scratched plenty of times before, and it wasn't even the worst injury he'd ever received. But when unusual things start happening, and Hiccup starts turning into a dragon, his whole world is changed forever.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Valka, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Comments: 5
Kudos: 62





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Guys, This is my first time posting on the archive and any hints, tips and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated! I'm going to try and update this every week, but I may get a bit slack...
> 
> Also, tagging is way harder than I thought it would be, and almost everything I searched up came up with options from teen wolf as well as HTTYD? Why?
> 
> Anyway, enjoy the story  
> (Thanks to DiamondGirl140 for beta'ing)

“Well, there’s going to be no attacks tonight.” Stoic sighed slightly, then stood up from his chair by the fireplace. He grabbed the battle axe from its place on the mantle, then walked over to the stairs. Stoic started to ascend, before pausing for a moment. He looked back at the woman still sitting in her chair, her gaze focused on the dying embers of the fire.

“Valka, honey, are you coming up?”

The woman looked startled for a moment, her features changing from a look of contemplation into surprise, before she turned around to face Stoic. 

“I was thinking of going for a quick walk before bed.”

Stoic sighed again, this time deeper. It had become a habit of Valka’s to go for midnight walks around the island when raids weren't happening, and even though the island had lookouts all night, and no dragons lived on the island, Stoic still worried. He had offered to come on some of these walks, but Valka had refused, claiming that she wanted some ‘alone time’. Stoic respected this, but didn't like that she was going out by herself.

“Ok, but please be quick, and make sure you take a torch with you.”

Valka smiled. “You worry too much. Of course I'll take a torch, and I'll be back within half an hour. I just need to clear my head.” Stoic nodded at this, then continued up the stairs. He turned again, then watched as Valka walked over to the door, grabbing her second cloak, a torch and flint and steel to relight it if need be. He shook his head at the second cloak. Recently, Valka had always worn a cloak inside, and even though it was winter, when the fire was roaring, it gave out enough heat to be unnecessary to have to wear a cloak or fur inside. Stoic watched as she opened the door and slipped outside, quietly shutting it behind her, before he finally walked up the rest of the stairs and into his bedroom.

***

As Valka stepped outside, she was hit with an icy closet gust of wind. She shivered slightly before it died down, and she took that opportunity to light the torch. She walked down the path leading from her house to the village, then moved through the center of the village as quickly as she could. She only encountered one lookout, and they exchanged brief nods before Valka was on her way again. She continued through the village, passing house after house, until she finally reached the end. However, Valka kept going, venturing into the forest that surrounded Berk. She knew that if Stoic found out just exactly where she walked and what she did, he would freak, but for now, Valka just enjoyed the peacefulness of the night.

She passed through the small patch of forest quickly, the trees and shrubs eventually opening up to clear ground. She blew out the torch, as it would just draw attention to her, and no one could see what she was about to do. She walked out and started up the base of a small hill, quickly reaching the crest, as she had walked up this hill many times before. Valka found herself looking out over the ocean, the moon reflecting off the dark water. Just in front of her, the land dropped away into the raging sea below, and she could hear the waves as they relentlessly crashed against the bottom of the cliff.

She took a step back, taking it all in. Every time Valka came here, the view always amazed her, whether it was cloudy, making everything just a little bit darker, or the moon was shinning brightly, almost sparkling off the water. Valka eventually brought herself back to the present, as she didn't have much time left. She turned around and shed her thick cloak, folding it and lacing it a few meters from the edge. She then took off her second cloak, placing it next to the other, before turning around and stepping right up to the edge. Valka took a deep breath, the salty air tickling at her throat, and rolled her shoulders, before she threw herself off the cliff

***

Valka was free-falling, hurtling towards the ocean. She loved the rush of it all, and as her body was pumped with adrenaline, she slowly levelled out. Now Valka was zooming across the water, running her hands through the spray from the waves, feeling the mist on her face. She looked back over her shoulder, eying the pair of wings on her back, before looking back at the water. She wished she could share this experience with the entire village, but not even Stoic would except her for … this. 

She flapped her wings, gaining altitude, before turning and heading back towards the cliff face. She didn’t have much time left, and needed to make what little time she did have left count. As Valka soared back to the island, she spread her arms out, and felt her leathery wings brush lightly against her arms as she flapped them. She did a barrel roll, before levelling out again and pulling up. She hovered in front of the cliff for a few seconds before she noticed a dark shape seemingly melt off the cliff and head out towards the ocean. Valka tucked her wings in and dropped, turning in midair and levelling out, following the shape.

She beat her powerful wings a few times before she finally caught up to the big creature that had exited one of the many caves that dotted the cliff face. The creature slowed down when it felt Valka approach, then hovered in place beating its powerful wings. Valka hovered in front of the massive creature, staring at its owlish face, and as it started to beat its second pair of wins, Valka did as well. They stayed like that for a few seconds, before Valka headed off towards the horizon again. The giant Stormcutter followed, and the flew together, doing looks and rolls and racing each other until Valka realised that they didn’t have much time left. With a whispered “Cloudjumper”, they were headed back to the cliff. 

Valka landed gracefully on the cliff, closely followed by Cloudjumper. Despite being such a large dragon, Cloudjumper made almost no sound and for that, Valka was grateful. If a villager found them here, they might kill Cloudjumper before he could get away, and Valka would never forgive herself for that. Valka turned around to face Cloudjumper, patting him gently on the muzzle before quickly donning her cloaks and picking up the torch. The Stormcutter crooned softly as Valka started to walk off and she turned back again when she heard it.

“Don’t worry, I'll be back tomorrow night, hopefully for longer.” Valka turned back, and started walking towards the village. As she relit the torch and walked back through the village, she couldn't help but think what her life would be like if Berk wasn't at war with dragons.


	2. Chapter one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup gets scratched when messing around with Toothless

“He-Hey bud, no!” Hiccup laughed. Toothless continued to bat at Hiccup, playfully bopping him on the head, and he ended up on the ground, laughing as he continued to tell Toothless to stop. Suddenly he did, flopping his head down on Hiccup’s stomach instead, and Hiccup let out a small ‘ooff’ before laughing again. Toothless would sometimes do the most random things, and Hiccup had a theory that the Dragon Nip he had recently discovered had done something to contribute to Toothless’s weird actions of late.

Hiccup gently pushed at Toothless’s head, as it was getting hard to breathe now, and Toothless got the message, moving his head and sitting upright, tongue out. Hiccup sat up and laughed again, then stood up and stretched. Toothless’s head really was heavy.

Suddenly Toothless started jumping around Hiccup like an over-excited puppy, and Hiccup murmured ‘ _crazy reptile’_ before Toothless presented his back to Hiccup and stuck his tongue out again.

“You want to go flying bud?” Hiccup asked. The dragon nodded excitedly, then bounded off to the other side of the cove before coming back again.

“Alright, alright, we’ll go now!” Hiccup laughed, also slightly exasperated with the dragon’s antics. He finally mounted Toothless’s back, and a few seconds later, they were out of the cove. Toothless quickly landed however, as Hiccup was no master of flight, and they had both quickly learned that it was much safer if Toothless walked to the ‘practice area’ as Hiccup had named it.

Once there, Hiccup jumped off Toothless’s back and started to look around for the new rope he had left up there to tie Toothless to the tree stump, after the last one had broken. He saw Toothless slinking off towards the field of Dragon Nip. Hiccup spotted the rope at the same moment, lunged for it, then turned around and sprinted towards Toothless. If he got into that field, he would be even crazier for the rest of the day, and Hiccup wasn’t sure if he could handle that.

“Toothless, STOP!” Hiccup yelled, still running towards him. The dragon in question turned around with an almost sheepish look to face Hiccup, who was running towards him, then looked towards the field where the Dragon Nip was. He looked to Hiccup again, who had almost made it to the dragon, and he let out a sad croon. He _wanted_ to go to the dragon nip, but he also wanted to fly, and Hiccup might be angry at him if he rolled in it again. Toothless gave one sad look towards the Dragon Nip, before he walked over to Hiccup.

“Really bud?” Hiccup questioned. Toothless let out a sad croon, and Hiccup sighed. “That stuff probably isn’t very good for you either.”

Toothless crooned again, and Hiccup shook his head. “Come on bud, flying.” He held up the rope that was in his hands, and toothless walked over to the stump, almost pouting, if dragons could pout. He let Hiccup tie the rope to the bottom of his saddle, and then Hiccup jumped on. One step closer to being in the skies again.

***

All round, Hiccup thought it had been a good session. Toothless had finally stopped trying to go after the Dragon Nip (he really was a crazy reptile). Hiccup had also added position 6 to the chart he was working on for the positions of the prosthetic tailfin. He had ended up switching around position 1 and 5 as well, although he still wasn’t happy with the set out on the chart. He had yet to add 3 and 4, but he reckoned he and Toothless could get back into the air within the week.

While Hiccup was musing, Toothless was chowing down on the basket of fish that Hiccup had brought him, quickly devouring the contents. He was soon finished, and sat back on his haunches, watching Hiccup. As soon as Hiccup looked over to Toothless, he pounced, jumping towards the young Viking, and they had an impromptu wrestling match.

Hiccup and toothless were jumping around and laughing, trying to touch each other without getting touched themselves, when toothless swiped at Hiccup’s arm. The boy let out of cry of pain, and Toothless instantly sobered up. Had he hurt his Viking?

Hiccup had quickly covered his arm with his hand, and slowly peeled it back. His hand was sticky, and he saw that his hand and some of his arm was covered in blood. He slowly looked up at Toothless, who looked so upset, and Hiccup instantly wanted to reassure him.

“Hey, bud, its fine. It’s just a scratch, look.” He walked over to the small lake in the cove, and washed his arm. Once the blood was cleared, he could clearly see that it was indeed just a cut, and although a bit large, it wasn’t that deep and was already starting to clot.

“See bud?” Hiccup questioned. “I’m fine.” He proceeded to rip off a part of his sleeve under the cut, and tie it around the cut. It did hurt, but he had had way worse from working in the forge and knew it would be fine.

He looked around to Toothless again, and the dragon still looked upset.

“Toothless, it was an accident bud. I know you didn’t mean to, and you’ve scratched me before.”

Toothless let out a sad croon, and he didn’t look too reassured. Hiccup almost rolled his eyes, before walking over to the dragon. “Bud, I’m fine, see?” He started to scratch the dragon, behind his earplates where he knew the dragon liked it, before moving his hands down towards the neck. He reached a spot just under the jaw, and suddenly Toothless just dropped, crooning with happiness. Hiccup looked at his hands in wonder. Was this yet another way to bring down dragons in dragon training?


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup gets his arm treated by Gothi, and convinces her that he received it during dragon training. Some odd things begin happening...

* * *

As Hiccup walked through the forest on his way back to the forge, he started to feel slightly light-headed. His arm was throbbing, and despite what he said to Toothless earlier to reassure him, it really hurt. It hadn't at first, but the longer the cut had been open, the more it hurt. He had in fact burnt himself badly in the forge before, but the cut on his arm was well on its way to beating the worst injury record. He wondered how hard it would be to do some forging this afternoon. 

Hiccup paused for a second, then tried to lift his arm up, but stopped quickly as it sent waves of pain crashing down on him. He slowly lowered his arm back to his side, where the pain lessened, then continued on his way. Was his arm meant to hurt this much from a scratch? It would be very interesting trying to move around the objects in the forge, let alone actually do any forging. 

As Hiccup emerged from the trees, some of the villagers noticed him, and they waved and gave him huge smiles. Hiccup quickly returned the waves with his good arm, before continuing onto the forge. It never once occurred to him that he should probably go to Gothi until Gobber yelled at him for turning up to the forge in that state when he noticed the bloody, crude arm wrapping. He didn't even ask what happened before he practically dragged Hiccup to Gothi's hut himself. 

* * *

Hiccup soon found himself standing in the middle of Gothi’s hut, waiting for Gothi to come down from upstairs. Gobber had told Gothi that Hiccup had turned up to the forge like this and that it hadn't happened in the forge before he had left and Gothi had left to get some supplies she would need. How she could do that without even seeing the wound, Hiccup would never know, but he was glad that she had left because it gave him time to think up an excuse. 

He knew Gothi treated most of the Vikings after dragon attacks, and she would definitely recognise a scratch or cut from a dragon’s claw. So as Gothi came downstairs with the supplies she had collected, Hiccup geared up his well thought out excuse to why his cut looked exactly like it was from a dragon. As Gothi started to unwrap his arm, he opened his mouth, but his words died on his lips as he set his eyes on the injury. 

He thought the blood had been clotting, and maybe it had, but now it was bleeding again. The skin had started going slightly green around the cut as well, and the veins surrounding the cut were very prominent and almost black looking. Hiccup almost turned his head at the slight, and he felt incredibly nauseous but didn't want to appear squeamish in front of Gothi, and stubbornly kept his eyes on his arm. 

Gothi’s eyes widened at the sight, and she threw a questioning glance towards Hiccup before she kicked into healer mode. She unwrapped the rest of the crude bandage and discarded it, before fetching a flask from a shelf of the hut and pouring its contents over the cut. It took everything in Hiccup not to cry out, as it stung like Hel, but he still winced and tried to move his arm. Gothi, however, had an extremely firm hold on his arm, and he had no choice but to wait for her to finish. 

* * *

Hiccup now sat opposite Gothi, his arm treated and bandaged, trying to explain how it had happened without giving Toothless away. 

“I-I can explain”, he started with, and Gothi looked thoroughly unimpressed. She gestured for him to go on, and he did. 

“I, um, I was out in the forest and umm… “. Hiccup trailed off. What should he say? That he fell over an extremely conveniently placed sword that just happened to give him a curve-shaped cut? He was jumping around on rocks? Encounter with a wild boar? No, they were all rubbish, and the last one would just have the twins bugging him about where it had happened so they could find the boar as well. In the end, he went with the best excuse he could think of that made sense. 

“…and I fell over. And, um, there was a… stick. Yeah, a stick”. Hiccup almost facepalmed. That was his best excuse? That he cut his arm, deeply, on a stick? 

Hiccup looked up at Gothi, who if anything, looked even more unimpressed than earlier. She looked at Hiccup for a few moments, before sighing and standing up, starting to walk towards the stairs. Hiccup immediately freaked out, thinking she was annoyed at him for his pretty obvious lie and would tell Gobber later, who would tell his dad when he got back, and then he would be in trouble for lying to the village elder. Hiccup was almost set to blurt the truth out to Gothi before it hit him: he did dragon training. He had an excuse for the scratch. The entire village knew that he spent half his day in the dragon ring, with dragons! 

“Gothi”, he called out. The elder turned back to look at him, one eyebrow raised, and before he could convince himself how bad an idea it was, he blurted out “I did it in dragon training.” Gothi looked slightly startled, but he continued on anyway. “I didn’t want to tell you, cause then others might find out, and then they might ridicule me for getting scratched by a dragon while I’m doing so well. Please don’t tell anyone!” 

Gothi’s previous expression morphed into understanding, and she walked over to Hiccup, before patting him gently on his good arm. She smiled at him, then nodded, before walking back up the stairs. Hiccup sighed in relief, glad that Gothi had believed him, before exiting the healer's hut and walking down towards the village. He was hoping to work on the designs for the tail mechanism, before grabbing some food in the great hall and going back to his house. He was starting to feel extremely tired, and he didn't think he would be able to stay up late in the forge tonight.

* * *

The next morning, Hiccup stumbled into the ring with a pounding headache. Last night, he had attempted to go to the forge, but Gobber took one look at his arm and barred Hiccup from the forge for the rest of the night. Grumbling, Hiccup had walked back to his house, and he had been so tired he didn’t even reach his room before he was out cold. After spending a night on his freezing floor, and with his arm still hurting, Hiccup had been in a bad mood since he’d gone to the great hall for breakfast. Even worse, he hadn’t worked on Toothless’s tailfin for a while, and he had needed to make a few adjustments for what he planned to do today. 

Well that wasn't happening. 

Snotlout, noticing that Hiccup had walked in, bounded up to him excitedly, the twins trailing behind.

“Hey cuz. What you did to take that dragon down yesterday was so awesome. I was actually wondering if you would want...” Snotlout paused mid-sentence and looked at Hiccup, confusion on his face.

“Hey, are you alright. Cause I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but you kind of look really tired and... did you spend the night in the forge?”

“Umm?” Hiccup asked slightly confused. He’d gotten used to Snotlout’s rambling by now, but his cousin actually being concerned about him was odd. 

“It’s just cause”, Snotlout continued, “You have a bit of charcoal on your ears. Did u sleep in the forge last night. Ooh, were you making something? Do you think I could maybe look at some of you stuff later, cause that would be so cool.” 

“Umm..”. Hiccup was slightly confused. He had charcoal on his ears? That would often happen when he worked late at night in the forge, but he hadn’t stepped foot in it yesterday. He lifted a hand up to brush at his ear, trying to brush it off, but when he looked at his hand, there was nothing on it. Was Snotlout just joking, trying to make Hiccup look stupid like he used to? He looked back at Snotlout, but his expression was till the same, and the twins weren’t laughing behind him, but actually looked interested. 

“I-ah, umm, yeah, I did sleep? In the forge. Yes. And, you want to see my designs?” 

“Yeah, of course! Right?” Snotlout turned to the twins, who nodded enthusiastically. 

“Well, umm,”. Hiccup was going to answer, but training had started and Gobber had called them over to the middle. Hiccup honestly didn’t know what he would have said, because the last thing he wants is the twins in the forge, but he doesn’t want to become less popular because people actually acknowledge him for good things now. 

* * *

Training continued in much the same way it had ever since the first time he trapped the terror, and soon he was walking back through the village, receiving enthusiastic pats on the head and slaps on the back from passing villagers. He’d managed to gently brush off the Twin’s and Snotlout’s attempts to come back with him to the forge, placating them with a “next time”, but before Hiccup went to the forge, he really needed to check his ears. He couldn’t think of a reason why there would be charcoal on his ears, and he knew Snotlout hadn’t been making fun of him because several other people had commented on it as well.

Hiccup eventually reached the edge of the village, and he continued into the forest, quickly coming across a small still pool of water. He knelt down in front of it, and began examining his ears. The tips were indeed black, and while it did appear at first to be charcoal, Hiccup couldn’t rub it off. Now that he had stopped moving, he had also become aware of a pain on the top of his head. The headache was still there, but now it felt like more concentrated pain. He slowly lifted the hand of his good arm up, and felt two small bumps on top of his head. 

Hiccup froze. 

What the hell was that? He slowly lowered his hand, then tilted his head forward and reached up to part his hair. He could just make out two small black bumps in his reflection on the water, and he started freaking out. What was happening? Ever since he’d been scratched, he’d felt weird, and now he was hallucinating? His ears, and now this? 

But he couldn’t be hallucinating, at least with the black on his ears, because other villagers had commented on it. Hiccup sat back on the ground and cradled his head in his hands. He was too tired for this, and his head seemed to hurt even worse as the day got longer. He needed to get to the forge, fix the tail, visit Toothless and then think about it tomorrow when his head didn’t hurt as much.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup's beginning to realise that something is happening to him, and he starts to hide it before the other Vikings catch on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi?  
> I am so sorry everyone, especially to those who wanted a quick update. I know how annoying it is when u want to read a fic but it hasn't been update in ages...  
> Rest assured, I will not be abandoning this fic. A friend has recently gotten into writing fics, so we're doing our best to motivate each other with our chapters, and it's working so far! Thanks to [TheBlackChatsPrincess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlackChatsPrincess/pseuds/TheBlackChatsPrincess) for reading over this before I posted it, and thanks for pushing me to finish this chapter. 
> 
> Now, onto the story!
> 
> (Quick side note, I've tried a new thing at then end by writing from a familiar dragon's POV, so constructive (please) feedback on how I did would be much appreciated)

Sneaking up to the back of the forge, Hiccup looked around cautiously before deeming it safe to enter. It appeared Gobber wasn’t inside right now, and he wasn’t sure the man would let him in considering the state of Hiccup’s arm yesterday, although it hardly hurt now. Gothi really was an amazing healer. 

Quickly jumping through the back window, he crouched down, cradling his bundle to his chest for a few seconds, before standing and quietly making his way to the room Gobber had given him to use for his inventions. While the large man didn’t appear to be around currently, it wasn’t unlike him to suddenly jump out from nowhere in an attempt to catch Hiccup off guard. That man could be sneaky when he wanted to. 

Making it to his room, Hiccup sighed in relief. Placing his bundle on the desk, he sat down and stared at the cloth he’d grabbed from his room. He’d planned to spend the afternoon after dragon training down in the cove with Toothless, but if he wasn’t hallucinating, and the pain he felt suggest he wasn’t, then he needed to create a hood or some item of clothing to cover his head and ears. He would have just worn the helmet his father had given him before he left, but that wouldn’t cover the blackness he couldn’t seem to rub off (he’d spent a good ten minutes sitting at the pool after he’d calmed down a bit furiously splashing water on his face and scrubbing his ears, to no avail). 

A hood would be ideal, but that would look odd just attached to his shirt, especially as the fabric he was staring at was brown, which didn’t match the green he regularly wore. A hooped cloak would be ideal, and honestly, people wouldn’t really question him that much if he changed his style, and they would just chalk it up with his success in dragon training. A cloak would definitely work!

Standing up, he briefly thought that he should figure out what exactly was happening to him and why, because he was certain it wasn’t normal. He quickly rationalised that it didn’t matter currently as he needed to focus on others finding out about it lest they think him cursed by the Gods, and he quickly shoved the thought to the back of his mind. He’d think on it later. 

Grabbing the fabric, he let it unravel and held it up above his head, checking that the length was suitable for what he had in mind. Satisfied, Hiccup placed the fabric back on the table and sat down again. 

And then had the realisation that he had actually never made a cloak before. 

Sure, he could sew, and he’d made a pretty good saddle for Toothless if he did say so himself, but he’d never actually had to make clothes for himself before. 

Well.

Sighing, Hiccup looked down at the table, before grabbing his journal and a charcoal pencil and leaving the room. He’d grab some food for Toothless on the way down. He hadn’t seen his friend since his arm had been scratched, and he needed to reassure the dragon he was alright. He also needed a quiet spot to think, quieter than the forge with chatter from passing villages drifting in from outside, and the cove was the perfect place. 

* * *

“Toothless”, Hiccup called out and he squeezed his small frame through the bottom entrance to the cove. “I’m back.”

A huge grey shadow detached itself from the wall, and he was promptly bowled over by the overly excited form of his best friend. The basket of fish he held spilled all over the ground, but Toothless didn’t appear to notice this as he enthusiastically licked the Viking’s face. 

Hiccup laughed, even as he wiped the dragon slobber off his face. He winced when he moved his arm too quickly, and the dragon noticed this, moving quickly away from Hiccup and sitting down on his hind legs, ears drooped and managing to look incredibly sad, considering he was a terrifying plasma-blasting beast. 

Hiccup couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of this, as Toothless looked absolutely adorable. Somehow, the dragon managed to look disgruntled, and Hiccup quickly moved to reassure him, not wanting to deal with a sad and pissed off dragon. 

“Hey bud, I’m fine. I went and saw the healer, and she fixed it right up. It doesn’t even hurt much anymore.”

To demonstrate, he lifted his arm up again, then did a few arm circles. He could feel the wound pulling slightly, but did his best to keep his face neutral so the dragon would be satisfied. He stopped, then gave the dragon a grin as if to say, see?

Toothless slowly got off his hind legs and stalked forward, eyes narrowing slightly as he glared at his rider’s arm. He slowly pressed his nose to the arm, eyes almost crossed as he looked at the bandages. It really was a comical sight, but Hiccup did his best not to laugh, as he didn’t want to annoy his friend any more than he already had. 

Appearing satisfied, Toothless moved his head from Hiccups arm to his chest, lightly headbutting him a few times, and laughing, Hiccup obliged his friend and started scratching him under his chin in the spot he knew the dragon liked. The dragon almost melted onto the ground, crooning contentedly, and Hiccup laughed and lay down next to him. A knew he needed to start planning his cloak, but for a few minutes he’d just lay here and listen to the birds. 

A sudden warm wind hit him and messed up his hair even more than Toothless and managed earlier, and Hiccup cracked an eye open to glare at the very innocent looking dragon next to him.

* * *

Looking up from his journal, Hiccup watched Toothless finishing up the fish that was still scattered around the cove’s entrance. The dragon hadn’t appeared too hungry when Hiccup had first arrived, but as the sun lowered to hang just above the horizon, he seemed to find his appetite and began devouring the food. 

Hiccup had moved to this rock soon after his arrival and had spent the next several hours figuring out how he was going to make this cloak. While he didn’t strictly need it right now, as he could hide the apparent horns he was growing by fluffing up his hair, we wasn’t sure how long it would be until they were noticeable to the other Vikings in the village, and he would prefer to get the cloak finished early rather than discover what their reactions would be. 

He glanced at the slab of rock next to him, littered with scrunched up parchment, then back at the page he’d been working on, he spent a few more minutes making adjustments before he decided he was finally happy with the design. He reckoned he finally had a design that was simple, feasible and ideally wouldn’t look entirely horrible, with a few hidden pockets to carry around some tools and other items that he might need. Now he just needed to put it together.

Sighing, Hiccup stood from the rock and stretched, his back complaining as he’d been hunched over the entire time he was designing. He walked back to Toothless, who was now hanging upside down from a tree, and gently patted his head. The dragon opened a violent green eye and stared at him, and Hiccup was surprised yet again at how expressive this dragon could be. He managed to look petulant (Hiccup assumed because he’d woken the dragon from a nap, or a dozing state as the dragon had been jumping around all over the place not too long ago). He was sure however that Toothless would prefer being woken up by Hiccup so he could say goodbye, as opposed to waking up once the sun had set and Hiccup was gone. 

After promising to visit again tomorrow, this time to hopefully do more flying, Hiccup began making his way back to the village. He hoped to fix up the tail fin tonight, but first he needed to make the cloak, and he had no idea how long it was going to take.

* * *

Hiccup walked into the area the next day bleary eyed but feeling very comfortable in his new cloak. He’d spent most of the night working on it, as well as adjusting the tail fin for the flight he planned to go on this afternoon, and had gotten very little sleep as a result. He’d gotten a few odd looks from some of the villagers on his way over, the dark colour of the fabric combined with him having his hood pulled up making him look very suspicious, but once they’d realised who was under the cloak, they gave positive comments on his ‘new look’.

While happy that his new ‘predicament’ was now hidden, and that he wasn’t been questioned on the sudden wardrobe change, he now had time to worry about what was happening to him and why. There were now two black bumps on the top of his head that were barely hidden by his hair, and his ears had darkened and now appeared completely black. 

Feeling self-conscious and worried that someone would see his ears in the shadow of his hood, he tugged it a bit higher, walking over to the wall opposite almost opposite from the entrance while he waited for the other teens to arrive. He began to think up new modifications he could make to the tailfin, and wished he’d remembered to bring his journal into the area. He’d put pockets into his cloak for this reason! 

After a minute of waiting, his back began to itch and he scratched at it absentmindedly. He’d need to sneak some iron away from Gobber next time they worked on the maces…

A frustrated groan broke him from his musing, and looking up, Hiccup spotted Astrid walking into the area, Fishlegs in tow. He nodded to the larger boy, who nodded back, before following Astrid to the other side. Her face was becoming quite red, and he could almost see the steam rising from her ears. 

“I can’t believe him… thinks he’s so much better… a cloak for Thor’s sake…”

Hiccup winced as the angry muttering reached his ears. Before dragon training had started, he and Astrid had been almost civil, but once he’d started beating her with no obvious reason, she’d begun to badmouth his at every opportunity. He didn’t take pride in beating her, and didn’t want to draw attention to himself, but letting the ‘beasts’ get hurt when he could do something to stop it didn’t seem right. At all.

Finally, Snoutlout swaggered into the ring, the twins on his heels, and Gobber called down to the group from outside the cage, where he would apparently be standing this lesson. 

“Alrighty, lads an’ ladies!” They all turned to look up at him, and what Hiccup saw made his face fall. That look on Gobber’s face could only mean trouble. And when dragons were involved, you really didn’t want to be around for what was coming next. 

* * *

She was confused. Confused and hungry. Hungry and confused. Tired. She was so…

With a loud creak, the door began lifting, and she looked out into the sunlight. That was slowly being revealed. She could hear the door next to her lifting as well, but forgot about it when she spotted some rocks on the other end of the area. 

She was so hungry. 

Ambling out into the area, she noticed some of those odd small horn headed creatures, but knew they would ignore her until she ate. Fluttering her wings, she slowly took off, then, building up speed, made her way over to the pile of rocks she’d spotted earlier. As she landed and began to eat, she noticed the Nadder throwing spikes at a few of the creatures, but continued ingesting the rocks. 

She was still confused, but not hungry. Not hungry was good. Not hungry meant fire, and fire was always good. 

Now feeling full, she took off again, leaving behind the significantly smaller rock pile. She knew after all this time that the more she attacked these strange horned creatures, the more was let out and the more she ate. Feeling the fire in her belly, she opened her mouth, and spat out the molten remains of her earlier meal. 

Turning around she flew off in a different direction, towards another group of creatures, and again spewed up the hot rocks. She was about to return to the rock pile for some more fuel when she thought she smelt… but no. That wasn’t possible. 

She tried to continue to the rock, but the creatures were making noise now, banding their tree and metal contraptions, and she became turned around. The sound was in her head, hurting, confusing again. 

He continued forwards, and this time she definitely smelt it. Landing now, as she couldn’t fly any longer, and looked in the direction of the scent and spotted a small horned creature, smaller than the rest. But that wasn’t possible. Because where he was standing should have been a Night Fury. She could smell her kin so clearly now as this creature slowly approached, but she couldn’t see them. 

Next to her, the Nadder landed and lay down, bowing her head to the strange creature. 

She was more confused than ever. Why were they acting like this? She wanted to get up and throw her lava, but she also didn’t want to throw it at him. And then she realised. 

This strange, odd creature didn’t just smell like a Night Fury. 

He was an Alpha. 


End file.
